I ordered my DC power cable!

girlsaylor · Post by **girlsaylor** » Mon May 21, 2007 7:13 pm

One step closer to sailing offshore here. I ordered both the DC power cable with the cigarette lighter type plug, plus the additional cable to connect directly to battery terminals. I plan to try it out as soon as it gets here, pending getting a DC outlet run into Ladyville here on the sailboat. If not, I'm thinking of snagging the battery out of the car for one night to test it out. I do have one of those Vector Battery back-up jump start units, but I don't think it's the right thing to use for a whole night. It's intended for just a quick emergency jump start. The other thing I want to test it for is to make sure I can get through a night or two of power outage, or a hurricane situation. As we're in SO Florida, it's more than a whim; downright a necessity. My DME did suggest to notify both the fire dept and the power company of my bipap, so that in the event of a power outage, they would have that info to prioritize my location to get the power up and running. Don't know that I would trust any organization to take that responsibility to heart...anybody else ever heard of this recommendtion?

girlsaylor

Goofproof · Post by **Goofproof** » Mon May 21, 2007 7:27 pm

Have you taken into account, you are showing a BiPAP, they use 24 volts only D.C.. A 12 Volt car Battery isn't enough, neither is a car start unit. You must use a 24 volt D.C. source. Jim

offlineon · Post by **offlineon** » Tue May 22, 2007 6:05 am

My DME did suggest to notify both the fire dept and the power company of my bipap, so that in the event of a power outage, they would have that info to prioritize my location to get the power up and running. Don't know that I would trust any organization to take that responsibility to heart...anybody else ever heard of this recommendtion?

I was told the same thing. Could be a good idea. I hear some utilities even offer a discount for xPAP users. At the moment I run a pure sine wave UPS (so I don't blow the humidifier) as an emergency battery backup for the bipap. It should beep me awake. If the outage is long, I can stay awake or drive to the nearest hospital and use their backup supply.

As Goofproof said - I guess you have a 24V source or a step up transformer/inverter?